Hello Everyone,
I am planning a trip from Melbourne to USA / Canada. The cities we want to visit are Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Los Angeles and New York.
I have never travelled to this part of the world before and am not too sure how to structure the flights, ie Melbourne to LAX, or Melbourne to elsewhere, and is it possible to have domestic flights built into the flight?
Could someone please make some suggestions on how we could order them so it is most economical?
Thank you,
I am from Quebec city, 2h north of Montreal. I do Melb-LAX, sleep there, help to fight jetlag for me, then I do direct flights to Montreal with air Canada. But westjet do cheaper flights you could go throught Vancouver, west is nice to see, hope in Edmonton and Toronto. You can drive, (or train or bus) from toronto to Montreal,its a long 8 hour drive, you could even go through Niagara falls and Ottawa. I realy recommand to go to Quebec city, it is very Europeen, very French, it is the oldest city in North America, everybody speaks French, and it is a foodie paradise! Then flight to NY-lax-melb to come back, or flight to NY first, theare plenty of flights good prices and take a train or bus to toronto. Flying is expensive, Westjet is cheaper, but still it can be expensive, bus is the must economical solution, but longer. I usaly buy my tickets separatly, it is usualy cheaper and I search many sites (flyscanner, expedia, kayak, wotif, etc.) and buy the cheapest, it takes time. Enjoye!
A few hints:
- Canadian infernal flights are very very expensive. Try to avoid.
- There is a train Montreal to Toronto. I loved both cities but Quebec should be on your list.
- There is a train Toronto to New York, it goes through Niagara Falls.
- LAX is an absolute mess, I'd avoid it if I were to go back. Ensure you have a long layover if you need to get your bags.
I am not sure I agree with your LAX statement. I was expecting a nightmare but it was one of the quickest exits on an international flight we have been through (although their immigration people are surly), this was in September this year. When we travelled domestically from LAX it sucked, their security measures are pretty extreme for domestic so if you do this allow extra time to go through security and if you can, travel minimally onto the plane, they scan everything including people.
It probably depends what airlines youre on. There's so many terminals and different security zones for each. Qantas's connections were a joke. I had to get my bag, walk about 1km, then check in again, go through security etc. The time they allowed was no where near sufficient and no one in Melb had a clue where I was supposed to go. I missed my connection and lost my bag for a day. Never again!
You reminded me about my naivety in travelling South America (not that I'm saying you are). Travelling Europe gave me the illusion that everything is close and if not, Ryanair and Easyjet would ensure I could get there for cheap on a Tuesday.
But anyway, if saving money was the focus then I'd probably use Air China or Philippine Air to score a sub-$1000 multi-city flight and fill the spaces. But from a quick check on Skyscanner I think the prices are a little higher and the stopovers a tad overkill from Melbourne (e.g. $100 higher and 10 hours longer…). This generally means places like Edmonton are out, so you'd want to fly into LA and out of New York, Montreal etc (if you wanted to cover those cities).
The only tip I have is to keep a lookout for flights where you skip the the last leg, since the price difference in North America is a joke. You're guaranteed to see this flying across the continent (e.g. Edmonton to Montreal direct may be more than Edmonton to New York via Montreal, but I don't know how it works for international destinations…).
Mel-lax
Lax-nyc
Rental car to Niagara T.O YUL
Drive back to NYC
NYC-lax layover lax
Lax mel
Melbourne to LAX or SFO then somewhere else
Personally I'd do a few days in LA, drive the 101 up to San Francisco, spend a few days there then fly elsewhere.